A non-profit organization dedicated to the eradication of all student loan debt through activism, education, and legislation;
because student loan debt is dangerous to the US economy and to the health and well-being of individual Americans and their families.
CRYN JOHANNSEN, Founder & Executive Director

To be fair, the song might be about quitting high school, which is a very different issue altogether than the purpose of your blog I think.

Or the song might be about quitting higher education.

But my point is that the song kind of illustrates a major cultral shift in assumptions over what education, at least, was and is supposed to do for a person's life.

These days, I would say that quitting school is a blessing, and will save a person a lifetime of debt.

In that sense the passenger in the fast car had made the right decision in quitting school and should have stayed home with the drunk father. Thus avoiding the rest of the story, which you can google as "fast Car Lyrics, Tracey Chapman"

And that is the heart of the matter.

A huge assumption and belief in the value of an education, and how it would lead to a "better life" was popularly understood as early as 20 years ago.

In conclusion, the last two decades have brought about a huge turnaround in belief in the value and trust in Education.

But what is the alternative? Debt-free Barbarism?

I am sure that if a person wants to go to a public Library and look over some popular 1980's and 1990's and 5 or six years more periodicals and/or publications, one will find articles and advertisements that tout the value of a "Higher Education" and the unassailable morality of Higher Education.

It was an assumption. As basic as assuming that the American Dream was alive and well.As basic as assuming that if one ""Worked Hard" one would "Get ahead".

yeah..hard work and geting ahead.

What the hell does all that mean now when I am 300 grand in debt and counting?Who would have dreamed that two decades of savage lending practices would actually cause many in the US to lament ever having gone to College or beyond?

Cryn Johannsen

Cryn Johannsen, Founder and Executive Director of All Education Matters, Inc., is the author Solving the Student Loan Crisis: Dreams, Diplomas, and a Lifetime of Debt(New Insights Press, 2016; available now on Amazon inpaperback andKindle).

She has spent many years in academic environments, giving her an insider's understanding of the varying forms of educational institutions and how they function. Ms. Johannsen worked for an academic publishing company, but now advocates for individuals who are struggling or unable to pay off their student loan debt on Capitol Hill.

In addition to her previous employment, Ms. Johannsen has been a student at multiple levels at multiple institutions, beginning at a community college, graduating with honors from the University of Kansas, and receiving MAs from both the University of Chicago and Brown University (where she also participated in an exchange scholar program with Harvard). She is an experienced researcher and instructor, and has focused her own education on the study of History and the Social Sciences.

Ms. Johannsen is available to give talks and do workshops on this critical topic.

Ms. Johannsen's book has been reviewed by the New York Review of Books in Rana Foroohar's article "How the Financing of May Lead to Leader." In addition, intellectuals, such as Henry Giroux and Andrew Ross endorsed it.

This blog, All Education Matters, will be digitally archived by the Library of Congress in November of 2017.

About me

Author of Solving the Student Loan Crisis: Dreams, Diplomas & a Lifetime of Debt (New Insights Press) - now available at Amazon in paperback and Kindle.
Founder and Executive Director of All Education Matters(AEM), a 501(c)(4); I am a freelance journalist for The Huffington Post, The Loop 21, and Hypervocal. My work has appeared in USA Today, Truthout.org, The New England Journal of Higher Education, etc.
Recipient of journalism grant from the Economic Hardship and Reporting Project (EHRP) to cover a story about suicides and student loan debt (published by the Huffington Post and on the EHRP site; edited by Barbara Ehrenreich and Garvy Rivlin) - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/c-cryn-johannsen/student-loan-debt-suicides_b_1638972.html